Country Spain Selected song "Algo pequeñito" | Selected entrant Daniel Diges | |
Selection process ¡Tu país te necesita! 2010
Destino Oslo, La Gala de Eurovisión 2010 Selection date(s) Online vote
18 January–5 February 2010
Final
22 February 2010 Selected songwriter(s) Jesús Cañadilla
Luis Miguel de la Varga
Alberto Jodar
Daniel Diges | ||
Spain took part in the Eurovision Song Contest 2010 held in Oslo, Norway. The national broadcaster Radiotelevisión Española (RTVE) selected the Spanish entry through a national selection process. Firstly by an online competition, ¡Tu país te necesita! (Your country needs you!), similar to the selection methods used in 2008 and 2009, which selected 10 acts to participate in the final of the selection process, Destino Oslo, La Gala de Eurovisión 2010, held on 22 February. The winner of the final was Daniel Diges with the song "Algo pequeñito".
Contents
Online vote – ¡Tu país te necesita! 2010
In November 2009 Spanish national broadcaster RTVE announced its plans for the 2010 Eurovision Song Contest, which would be held in May 2010 in Oslo, Norway. The national campaign, ¡Tu país te necesita!, was launched by RTVE. As in the 2008 and 2009 Spanish selection processes the internet played a vital role in the selection, with all submitted entries placed on RTVE's website and voted upon for over two weeks. The ten most voted candidates proceeded to the televised final. Each voter was required to have a valid email address, and was able to vote only five times per day. RTVE reserved the right to subtract votes if it believed that fraudulent votes were being made by computer programs or scripts. TVE insiders stated that the participation of joke entries, such as those found in previous contests like "Baila el Chiki Chiki", the winner of the 2008 Spanish national contest, would be avoided.
Online vote
Submissions for the internet voting began on 4 December, and continued until 12 January 2010. A total of 480 songs were submitted to RTVE for the contest, of which 313 progressed to the online voting.
During the voting period, from 18 January to 5 February, 5,722,596 votes were registered, about 100,000 more votes than in 2009.
On 21 January RTVE disqualified four songs from the online vote that were deemed to be breaking the rules of the competition. These included Pop Star Queen, who led the voting at the time of elimination; Chimo Bayo, who was in third place; Kejío; and Juan Losada. On 2 February four further songs were disqualified: El Pezón Rojo, who were leading the online voting and were disqualified after it was revealed their song had been released in a podcast in 2008, along with Kito & Rafa, Rose Avalon and Sonia Monroy.
The online voting ended on 5 February 2010. On 8 February RTVE announced the finalised list of the 10 finalists after finalising all votes and removing falsified votes.
Final – Destino Oslo, La Gala de Eurovisión 2010
On 22 February the ten online qualifiers competed again on the televised Eurovisión: Destino Oslo, which was held at TVE's Estudios Buñuel in Madrid and hosted by Anne Igartiburu and Ainhoa Arbizu, broadcast on TVE1 and online. The winner was decided by both a professional jury vote, made up of: actor Manuel Bandera, journalist José María Íñigo, journalist Toni Garrido, music producer Mariola Orellana, and radio presenter and director Pilar Tabares; and a public televote, each consisting of 50% of the final vote.
A number of guest artists performed during the show, including Rosa López, Spanish Eurovision entrant in 2002, Sergio Dalma, Spanish Eurovision entrant in 1991, and David Bustamante, finalist in Operación Triunfo 2002, as well as a performance by the Spanish cast of the musical Chicago.
After the votes of the five jury members and the televote, Daniel Diges was declared the winner with his song "Algo pequeñito". He received 58 points from the jury, two points away from full marks, and full marks from the televoters, securing victory over Coral Segovia and Lorena, who came second and third respectively.
At Eurovision
As a member of the "Big Four", Spain automatically advanced to the final. In the running order draw, it was determined that Spain would perform 2nd. However, Diges was allowed to perform his song again after the final performer in the final due to the infamous Spanish pitch invader Jimmy Jump making it up on stage during the initial performance. Jump was quickly chased off stage by security and escorted from the arena by police. In the end, Spain scored 68 points and ranked 15th.